Digression
by volitaire
Summary: It's going to take a little more than a flimsy Teflon fence to keep Kevin out of the woods.


Today, Kevin had helped a blind girl climb over the fence.

…Kevin had never really known himself to be quick on the uptake, but this was just absurd. He had done what he thought to be standard Preserve protocol: keep the road clear. That _was_ his job, wasn't it? Well, technically, no.

…If he _wanted_ to be fucking Dudley Dooright he'd catch himself a dastardly villain and tear up his Bachelor's in Conservation. He'd heard of working one's way up the ranks, but Walker's promotional system was _ridiculous_. He couldn't see how a trainee could gain any footing as a preservationist when the closest any of them got to the forest was while playing rent-a-cop in a Land Rover. Kevin didn't know what was harder to believe: that flimsy Teflon fencing was the only thing separating him from nature, or that day in and day out he consented to this lame-ass _border_ _patrol_! It was unfair. Kevin was a plant guy. Four years of toiling away in Portland's foliation labs, four years of _Moneses_ _Pyrola_, four years of epoxy and Echinacea and the phototaxis of perennial herbs- and for what? A nightstick and a warden's badge.

Oh, and a blind chick in a nineteenth-century sundress staggering around sector twelve on a desperate quest for antibiotics.

…Was he missing something…?

Days like today made his job less grueling. At first he was stricken dumb- how she even scaled the enclosure was a mystery, but then she'd tripped him up with all the eloquent Henry David Thoreau shit and her big doe-eyes and something was _definitely_ lost in translation. For a second he'd forgotten her urgency and just laughed silently to himself. --Wow. Here was the _one_ person in the _entire_ state of Pennsylvania who adored the forest more then he did.

…Hell- she _lived_ in it!

"Ivy Elizabeth Walker." She had called herself.

Well, 'Walker' was certainly significant. Relation or not, this girl was in need of some serious help, and Kevin swore he felt the tug of the universe shift in his favor.

…He had never seen anything so beautiful- well…back in 2003…when that pack of timber wolves on the move had crossed through Walker's precincts.

_That_ was a sight to see- instances like _that_ were why Kevin pursued employment here. Their migration was all over the news; these wolves were tagged and profiled, chased by helicopters and PETA people, zoos and poachers, worshippers and GPS systems across the country, and yet _Kevin_ was the one to witness it firsthand. While locking up the office one night, Kevin turned to the tree line just in time to catch a glimpse of the majestic yellow eyes of the alpha male. It lingered on the edge of the forest and stared- the leader of a dying race, this regal and revered creature, primeval, enigmatic, alone- chose to veer off course and investigate, and Kevin saw it. He _stared_ _it_ _down_. He almost shit his pants, but there would be no dignity lost if that were the case. That miracle- those burning yellow eyes, stuck with him forever. He never in a million year imagined he'd witness something better.

And then she showed up.

Ivy's eyes could not compare. No prose or poetry could even begin to depict those eyes. There were no words. They scared him. _She_ scared him. A three hundred pound wolf couldn't convince him to hightail it back to the Jeep, but this woman? He'd need an airlift out. Above anything else he was angry with her- for violating park rules, for disturbing the animals, for sounding so damn _petrified_ and for being so damn _beautiful_! There was something vampiric beneath that clouded, crystal blue…something so determined and yet so…lost.

---Today was a trip. 'Walden Pond' meets 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure'. Emily Dickinson meets Hansel and Gretel.

"…There is kindness in your voice. I did not expect that." Expect? She'd been _expecting_ him? 'Meet up with misplaced puritan lass' had _not_ been on the clipboard of daily checkups this morning. He was too frightened to check in the surrounding bushes for the crew of 'Candid Camera'. This was not a joke. Ivy Elizabeth Walker needed his help. After being presented with a standard issue _grocery_ _list_- everything from diazepam to latex gloves- Kevin found himself playing nurse and go-for, only to be chastised and interrogated by Mike.

'Don't get into conversations…'-like hell he wouldn't! Could he bend the rules for the stranger that just _wandered_ _out_ _of_ _the_ _woods_?! Kevin wasn't acting upon a soft spot as much as the little nagging voice at the back of his brain telling him this was too _ludicrous_ to ignore. In under five minutes Kevin went from nurse, to thief (he'd raided the medicine cabinet so thoroughly even NAFTA couldn't properly refill it…), to firefighter- assembling the rickety old ladder rotting atop the Land Rover. That thing was used to take down abandoned egret's nests on telephone poles, and as an accidental cup holder for Kevin's morning pick-me-up. Never in a million years would he imagine its being used to return a blind vixen to her woodland haven. In a twisted way she looked like Santa climbing that thing, sack full of pills slung over her shoulder to deliver to some lucky community of forest critters all sung in their beds. He didn't think they housed any reindeer in this preserve, but then again, he didn't think they housed any women either.

He heard her drop to her feet on the other side of the wall- it was a clumsy '_thud_!', and he was so filled with worry at the sound that he was halfway up and over before she assured him she was unharmed. Peering over the top, he checked to make sure all the bottles had stayed intact, but Ivy simply stared straight ahead into the woods, gripping the mouth of the sack so tightly her hands were shaking.

"…Can I take you back from where you ca- from in- to wherever you're going?" He stuttered down at her, his own hands trembling out of pure anxiety.

"No, Kevin," was all she said.

"Will you be alright?" He persisted. "I mean- _how_- will you-? Do you live around the turnpike? I can drive you miss- I mean, it's no trouble- I-"

"No." She repeated austerely, the fear that was initially plaguing her voice returning. "I must go alone."

At this she turned around to face him, brandishing her hands through the air, craning her neck up to the top of the fence and focusing on the setting sun. "Please, please, _promise_ _me_ that you will not tell anyone in The Towns of my appearance here."

"The Towns- what- you mean like Pittsburg or something? Really m'am- I swear to God, no one in Braddock- no one at Walker knows you even _exist_."

"Then keep it as such." She whispered.

He was stricken to silence- just as confused and terrified as ever- offended, even. Ivy seemed to pick up on this.

Nervously smoothing the hem of her dress she gasped- in the incongruous fashion she had been speaking in ever since she had arrived, "Thank you Kevin. You, too, have a color, you know." She smiled. "You are pink."

With that, she turned and bolted, never stumbling once and never looking back, bag bouncing off her shoulder, her breath broken and heavy and distressed.

Was there deep philosophical connotation in this- in _any_ of this? Should he have followed her? Should he follow her now?

…It's almost eight PM- the Jeep's gotta be returned to the garage---sooner or later someone's gonna notice the foray of the medical supplies- it's a rookie's job to take the rap. He still has his laundry to do tonight, and he's gotta perform the nightly checkups at the watchtower switchboards-

Oh what the _fuck- _there is a girl in the fucking _forest_!

Without even bothering to kill the lights on the Land Rover, Kevin mounts the fence, hoping to whatever nymph or entity was watching over him that he was camouflaged well enough to pull this off. Ivy had called him pink- _pink_? A noticeable color in a sea of greens and browns…

With one leg over the vallation, and his rational mind conveniently absent- Kevin suddenly understands why he is _pink_. He is _smitten_. He was most likely blushing so furiously, his infatuation was converted into something even a blind woman could see. He's _stupid_ for not seeing it himself- any other wanderer on his turf would've been reported and thrown in the back of the truck without the slightest chance to explain themselves.

But today, Kevin had been more terrified than he could ever remember.

Today, Kevin had helped a blind girl climb over the fence.

He had fallen in love, plain and simple.

And now? He was going to follow her.


End file.
